Page 185 - Calculating Agriculture Cover 20191124 STUDENT - A

CH 15] Calculating Agriculture 15-13

Dressing Percent. The dressing percent is used as one of the most basic means of
expressing the worth of a slaughter animal. Sometimes it is referred to as the "yield." Table 11.8
gives the approximate average dressing percent of various classes and grades of livestock, and
there is no difference in these percentages for English or metric measurements. Dressing percent
is the percentage of the live animal weight that becomes the carcass weight at slaughter. It is
determined by dividing the carcass weight by the live weight, then multiplying by 100. The
formula for determining dressing percent is:

chilled carcass wt.
Dressing percent = ———————— x 100%
live wt.

Example A. A 100 kilogram hog yields a chilled carcass weighing 70 kilograms. Determine the
dressing percent:
Solution:
chilled carcass wt.
Dressing percent = ——————— x 100%
live wt.

70 kg
Dressing percent = ———— x 100%
100 kg

= 0.70 x 100%

Dressing percent = 70%

Dressing percentages to calculate dressed weight. Animals raised for their meat have an
average dressing percent, and groups of animals will have an average gross dressing percent which
can be used to estimate and expected kilograms or pounds of dress weight. The student should be able
to calculate the expected kilograms of dressed weight and convert that metric measurement to its
English equivalent.

Example: Hogs that have a gross average dressing percentage of 74%, and weighing 1,485
kilograms, what is the dress weight in both metric and English weight?
ans.___________kg
ans.___________lbs

Solution:
Dress Wt. = Live Weight x Dress % 15
= 1,485 kg x 74%
= 1,485 kg x 0.74 Convert percent to decimal value
Dress Wt. = 1,098.9 kg

Convert to English (Refer to Table 15.1)
Lbs = Dress Wt. kg ÷ metric factor.
Lbs = 1,098.9 ÷ 0.45
Lbs = 2,442 lbs

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